20 in 20: Aston Villa

Manager: Paul Lambert
Captain: Ron Vlaar
Star player: Christian Benteke
One to watch: Nathan Baker
Notable additions: Antonio Luna (Sevilla), Aleksander Tonev (Lech Poznan), Nicklas Helenius (Aalborg BK) 
Notable subtractions: Eric Lichaj (Notts. Forest), Brett Holman (Released)

Last Season: Truth be told, its a minor miricle we're still talking about Aston Villa as a premier club after an injury riddled season that saw the over exposure of a number of young players some how not come back to bite them team, and take them down. Due to owner Randy Lerner's tightened purestrings and willingness to cash in Villa have lost the likes of Ashley Young, James Milner and Gareth Barry and with them their status as a top eight club that on more than one occasion almost gate crashed the top four. Still though, to see a Premiership lifer like Villa fighting off relegation with the leagues youngest squad so clearly unready for the task at hand was at times sad. The excellent decision from new manager Paul Lambert to replace veteran Shay Given with Brad Guzan in goal combined with the goals of bargain buy Christian Benteke kept the club alive, in the end buy 5 points due to the late fall off of their basement rivals.

This Summer: The problem with having such a young squad at a club that isnt fighting at the top of the division is that, even if you manage to generate some level of success with them, the bigger boys will always come sniffing around for the best of the bunch. Villa had to deal with this early in the summer when last years surprise star Christian Benteke put in a transfer request, sparking interest from Spurs. Villa out weighted the Belgian and in the end re-signed him to a four year contract. Aside from that manager Lambert has gone about the task of turning the squad more into his own, six in and six out so far has seen experienced heads like Richard Dunne aloud to leave, to be replaced by little known younger talent from around Europe. After the excellent additions of Vlaar and Benteke last summer though, you have to trust Lambert and his scouting staff that this is the way to go. Villa may well be done in this transfer market having re-signed their top scorer and bolstered their defense, midfield and forward options, however should Given move on in search of first team football, an extra goalkeeper would assumably be an option, recently released Chelsea man Ross Turnbull as possibility.

Prediction: A lot of premier league teams had disappointing

 2012/13 seasons and will be desperatly trying to improve this upcoming year. It would be hard to see the likes of Newcastle, who finished below Villa, strugeling as such again. Sunderland the only other team who finished below Lamberts side but survived the drop, have signed well so far this summer, and a full season under new manager Paulo Di Canio could see them improve. All in all its difficult to see too many teams you'd bank on Villa to finish above this term, unless an unlikely team falls into things, perhaps Everton or Stoke should they react badly to their managerial changes. Villa themselves though are a project, one that looked like it was in its earliest and weakest stage last season, if they survived that, i struggle to see them not seeing off the challenge of this seasons three new boys, even if they fail to beat anyone else in the standings, i think they will beat them and stay in the division. 17th.